For the millions who were demoralized by four years of the Biden administration’s flagrant disregard for border security, the Trump 2.0 approach has been a much-needed return to common sense. Despite tremendous media blowback against the enforcement operations in Minnesota and deportations in general, Trump deserves credit for sticking to his principles.

Even so, this is no time to order “Mission Accomplished” banners. The machine pushing illegal immigration in the United States never sleeps, and there is still much more to be done. The Trump administration’s latest salvo is an aggressive crackdown on birth tourism networks.

Recent actions by the State Department—disrupting a West African birth tourism network involving over 100 foreign nationals using false documents and “fixers,” and identifying more than 400 suspected cases from Europe since 2024—are establishing a long-overdue enforcement priority.

The crackdown is part of President Trump’s executive efforts to roll up the black market that has taken advantage of our overly generous immigration policies. The 14^th Amendment, which includes the birthright citizenship clause, was enacted in 1868 to benefit freed slaves and their children. It was never meant as a backdoor for the citizens of the world—including many of considerable wealth who use this mechanism cynically—to game the U.S. immigration system for benefits and access which they would not otherwise get.    

Birth tourism isn’t a harmless cultural quirk. It is visa fraud on an industrial scale. Foreign nationals apply for B-1 and B-2 visitor visas claiming tourism, business, or medical reasons while concealing their true intent: giving birth on U.S. soil to secure automatic citizenship for their child under the birthright citizenship clause. Networks coach applicants on interview answers, arrange housing in “maternity hotels,” coordinate hospital deliveries, and charge tens of thousands of dollars. This isn’t immigration; it’s a transnational business model that exploits loopholes and dilutes the value of what it means to be American.

The manipulation of birthright citizenship and the birthright tourism industry that comes from it is rooted in fraud. Women who hide pregnancies or delivery plans on visa applications commit material misrepresentation—a deportable offense and basis for future inadmissibility. The Trump administration’s revival and expansion of the 2020 rules, combined with new visa revocations and coordination with local authorities, represent serious enforcement that previous administrations largely ignored.

As is the case with many other immigration scams, birth tourism often sticks American citizens with the bill. Hospitals in popular destinations like California, Texas, and Florida absorb unpaid bills when birth tourists lack adequate insurance or resources for neonatal care. Taxpayers subsidize emergency Medicaid, NICU stays, and public services for children who gain citizenship while their parents return home, often planning to leverage that citizenship later for chain migration.

Critics decry measures to curb this practice as “anti-immigrant” or cruel, but that rhetoric misses the point and holds America to an absurd standard. Almost no other country indulges tourists or temporary visitors with that kind of benefit. The United States stands nearly alone in extending citizenship to children born to noncitizens without requiring any parental legal presence or intent to remain. Ending this fraud would restore fairness to those who follow the rules—waiting years for visas, investing in English proficiency, and contributing economically.

Americans support legal immigration that benefits the nation. But polls consistently show majority opposition to loopholes that permit people to game the system. Birth tourism undermines public trust, strains resources, and cheapens the meaning of citizenship. Children born through these schemes deserve better than being pawns in a fraudulent enterprise. Their parents should have no option but to pursue lawful pathways instead of shortcuts.

The Trump administration’s multi-front approach—State Department visa scrutiny, ICE investigations, and coordination with Congress and localities—signals to the world that U.S. sovereignty and generosity have limits enforced by law. As enforcement ramps up, we should expect fewer fraudulent entries, reduced burdens on hospitals and taxpayers, and restored confidence that citizenship remains a privilege earned through fidelity to American rules, not purchased via deception.

As a Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship looms, the American people need to support an end to birthright citizenship and the chicanery like birth tourism that comes with it. It is not too much to ask for a government that has sensible immigration parameters and enforces them. American citizenship is valued around the world. It would be refreshing if more of our political leaders held the same view.